Linda 'felt trapped in her marriage to bossy Beatle'

Paul McCartney's marriage to Linda passed into legend as one of the strongest in showbusiness.

But yesterday it was claimed that his first wife was 'deeply unhappy and depressed' at times and felt 'trapped'.

At one point she talked about leaving Paul, who kept her 'on a tight leash' and could be 'very controlling', according to her confidante Peter Cox .

Mr Cox is the man in possession of the 'Linda Tapes' - 20 hours of conversations recorded when he was writing a cook book with her - in which she allegedly details 'problems' in the 29-year marriage.

The tapes could become pivotal in McCartney's divorce from Heather Mills if a judge decides they lend support to Heather's claims that he could be violent.

As the PR battle continued to rage yesterday it emerged that:

•After hearing that Heather had accused her father of hitting her mother Linda, Stella McCartney screamed: 'I'll kill the bitch.'

• Heather is considering recording a Princess Diana-style TV interview to tell all about her four-year marriage to Sir Paul.

• She is being blamed for the break-up of her fitness trainer's live-in relationship.

Sir Paul, 64, and Heather, 38, tried to put their differences to one side at the weekend for the sake of their daughter Beatrice, who was celebrating her third birthday.

In their first face-to-face meeting since they split four months ago, both turned out for a party at a play centre in Hastings, East Sussex, although they arrived and left separately and barely exchanged a word.

The Linda Tapes can only add to the gulf between them. Although Mr Cox has signed a gagging order preventing him from revealing their contents, he has spoken for the first time of his impression of the state of Sir Paul's first marriage.

The tearful confessions

Mr Cox, 51, a vegetarian campaigner, became close friends with Linda as they worked together on Linda McCartney's Home Cooking, published in 1989. He frequently travelled to the family home in East Sussex where he would spend hours talking to her in the kitchen.

Their chats about recipe ideas often turned into cathartic confessionals.

'There were moments when Linda would feel deeply unhappy and depressed about her marriage,' he said.

'Every marriage has its ups and downs, of course. In her low moments, the idea of leaving him did cross her mind, but she immediately rejected it. Her family was the most important thing in her life and there was no way she'd give them up. At the low points she did feel trapped.

'When I started to learn all this, I was a bit dazed because I thought this was Britain's happiest marriage.

'Occasionally I'd find Linda in tears, obviously distressed. And there were about five or six occasions when I would get the train down to Peasmarsh only to be met by a driver who'd been sent to say that she couldn't see me. That was when I got really worried.

'Some days she would be terrific, and other days she would be depressed about things

and wouldn't want to do anything.

'I could tell within seconds of arriving if she was upset. Sometimes she would put a brave face on but other times she was in tears. On those occasions I could only offer her a sympathetic shoulder and listen to her.'

Sir Paul and his controlling ways

Mr Cox claimed Sir Paul had 'a darker side and could be very controlling'. 'He bossed her around

and kept her on a tight leash - like a caged animal. Linda had to be attentive when Paul was there. I remember we had one of our mobile meetings about the book - in the car as we were driving to see Paul - when a call came in on the car phone.

'He wanted to see only her and I was dumped unceremoniously near the M25.

'She was very embarrassed and apologetic. But that was just Paul.

'It struck me that she didn't have ready access to money. For instance, I would often lend her a fiver or a tenner for groceries.'

Tension in the marriage

Despite Sir Paul's reputed love for his Peasmarsh estate, Mr Cox claimed the home was a source of tension between the couple.

'Paul used to complain that their life was isolated. He wanted very much to be in town, going to parties and restaurants. Linda didn't want that. She just wanted to lead a happy, normal life surrounded by her family and the things she loved. This was one of the causes of tension between them.'

Sir Paul and Linda famously only spent a handful of nights apart during their entire 29-year marriage. But Mr Cox, of Marylebone, West London, claimed Linda was sometimes reluctant to follow her husband on tour.

'Paul would want Linda there when really she didn't want to go. Then he said grudgingly that she didn't have to go if she didn't want to. In the end she went, of course, but it was always a great drama.'

The legacy of John Lennon

Mr Cox said of his meetings with Sir Paul: 'I didn't warm to Paul. There was an awful coldness about him. His eyes were deader than any I had ever seen.

'He also kept talking about John Lennon in the present tense. It was John says this and John thinks that. Very weird. And he spoke about that reference to The Beatles being more famous than Jesus. He said: "Do you realise how much power we could have had if we'd gone to the dark side?" I didn't know quite what to say.

'Once he said to me: "If I gave you a million pounds, would you eat a hamburger?" I said no, and he accused me of lying. What does this say about him - that he thinks everyone has a price?'

On another occasion, Mr Cox arranged a business meeting with Sir Paul in London, when the Beatle arrived hours late and then abruptly told Mr Cox he did not have time to see him.

'I said: "I have been waiting for hours, Paul" and he replied that he was Paul McCartney and not to forget it.'

Sir Paul later phoned to apologise, which was 'rare, apparently' said Mr Cox.

The Jane Asher effect

Mr Cox said that on days when Linda was feeling uninspired, he would use his 'secret weapon' - a cake recipe book by Jane Asher, Sir Paul's former fiancÈe. 'If she was a bit down, I'd slam it on the kitchen table and it acted like a red rag to a bull. Linda would say: "Right, let's get going".'

Following Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998, Mr Cox was deeply upset to discover he was not invited to her funeral. He says he has 'never forgiven' Sir Paul for the apparent snub.

Yesterday Heather was accused of being responsible for the breakup of her 22-year- old personal trainer's two-year relationship with his live-in partner.

Ben Amigoni, who has been almost constantly at Heather's side in recent weeks and has been promoted to be her bodyguard, has left his girlfriend Jo Bradford, a 23-year-old bank clerk.

Miss Bradford said: 'How could I compete with Heather? We had saved up together to afford a package holiday to Corfu, just a week after he started working for her. Yet within days she was flying with him to Slovenia first class.

'Heather stole my thunder. I suddenly felt our life wasn't good enough for him. He was getting sucked into her celebrity world and I could see that I was losing him.'

Miss Bradford said Sir Paul rang Ben to ask him: 'Is there anything going on with you and Heather?' Ben said there was not.

On another occasion Heather rang Miss Bradford and said: 'I swear on my daughter's life that nothing has ever or will ever go on between me and Ben.'

Heather is in secret negotiations with the BBC and ITV for a documentary about her life with Sir Paul, the News of the World claimed yesterday.

It also claimed that Sir Paul's daughter Stella, who has always had a frosty relationship with her stepmother, laid into Heather during a highly-charged discussion with her father.

Stella, 34, who is pregnant, is alleged to have told Sir Paul: 'I told you she was a bitch. Why did you marry her? She's been a manipulative cow from day one. The cow won't be happy until she destroys all of us - and our memories of our mother.'

Sir Paul did not wish to comment on Mr Cox's claims, his spokesman said last night.